Africa's private assets industry may be approaching a moment of reckoning. For years, optimism around the continent's growth story has drawn significant private capital, but much of that capital may now be trapped in illiquid portfolios. The result, according to Marc Lasserre, Managing Partner of S.O. Capital Advice, is an industry "overfed" with assets yet starved of liquidity.
Lasserre believes this imbalance is setting the stage for an important shift. "At the end of 2025, we're at a point of change in the private assets industry in Africa," he notes. "Investors have amassed an enormous amount of assets that have not been liquidated as planned. They need to digest what's already on their balance sheets before they can invest again."
